1689. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap.... . Copyright v 0> 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



The Closing Century's Heritage 



The Closing Century's 
Heritage 



BY 

REV. J. D. DINGWELL 



" At evening time it shall be light " 




New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

Publishers of Evangelical Literature 



• 4 






-*$ 



>139 

Copyright, 1899 

by 

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 







AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 

TO 

MY WIFE 



Introduction 

I have had the pleasure of reading the manu- 
script of the book which is now sent forth to 
readers everywhere. I received a spiritual uplift 
as I read, and so feel confident that there is a 
blessing here for all who will claim it. I know 
the consecrated spirit of the author, and pray 
God's choicest blessing — both upon himself and 
his work. 

J. Wilbur Chapman. 

Philadelphia. 



Preface 

This little volume is neither the voice of a dog- 
matist nor a prophet, but is simply a setting forth 
in outline of a truth common to all who will 
stop and consider. The writer has written and 
published it in obedience to a keen sense of duty. 
If to any, or all, it proves an inspiration or a 
blessing, all glory to Him who leads persistently 
yet lovingly, through paths unsought and unex- 
pected. 

J. D. D. 



Contents 



PAGE 



I 

The State 13 

II 
The Church 35 

III 
The Bible 57 

IV 
The Pulpit 75 

V 
The Pew 91 



11 



The Closing Century's Heritage 



THE STATE 

"And the light shineth in the darkness: and the darkness 
overcame it not."— John i. 5, r. v. (Marginal). 

The words of Sir Isaac Newton shortly before 
his death, that he seemed to himself "like a boy 
playing on the seashore, diverting himself in now 
and then finding a smoother pebble, or a prettier 
shell than ordinary while the great ocean of 
truth lay all undiscovered before him/' are words 
as one has said significant of his habitual humility 
and reverence. 

But for a man in the closing years of this nine- 
teenth century to speak of our progress and dis- 
coveries, as the pebbles and shells upon the sea- 
shore, while the great ocean of truth lay all undis- 
covered before him, would be to manifest a false 
modesty or to acknowledge inexcusable ignorance. 

Of course the ocean has not been ploughed 
through and sailed over in all directions, but the 
cardinal points of the compass have been fol- 
lowed far beyond the pebbles and shells of the 

13 



14 The Closing Century's Heritage 

surf-wash ; even beyond the far distant seeming 
termination of the horizon, and its depths have 
been sounded in so many and various places, 
with so many and various progressive results, 
that we are almost forced to ask ourselves at 
times, what other possible unheard of discovery 
yet remains to be made ? 

And yet, doubtless there are some, and perhaps 
many, but I am inclined to believe that they will 
be of a more intermediate nature — a filling in and 
a rounding out, suggested by the great discover- 
ies already made, rather than entirely new and 
distinct acquisitions. The afternoon of our pres- 
ent century, the few closing years of which might 
be called the evening time, has been an afternoon 
of wonderful achievement. Undoubtedly they 
have been years in the world's history with dif- 
ferent activities in different localities. We have 
by no means been entire strangers to the peculiari- 
ties and eccentricities of the past. Doubts and 
difficulties, wars and rumors of wars, and many 
other things, grievous rather than joyous for the 
present have manifested themselves. 

But unto the nations of the world and the de- 
partments of life which have been exercised there- 
by the fruit of righteousness has been yielded, 
whether it has always been peaceable fruit or not. 



The State 15 

Jesus you remember said, " Think not that I 
came to send peace on the earth ; I am come not 
to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a 
man at variance against his father and the daugh- 
ter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law 
against her mother-in-law : and a man's foes 
shall be they of his own household. ,, Friction 
and progress, sometimes and in some things are 
very closely associated. 

The cloud bursts and the thunderbolt escapes, 
but the final result is purification. This universal 
note of progress, all through our century, par- 
ticularly our century's afternoon, has been more 
than a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Al- 
fred Russel Wallace, in his recent book, "The 
Wonderful Century," 1 compares the material 
achievements of the nineteenth century with 
other centuries, and in the closing part of the 
chapter gives a tabulated comparison of the nine- 
teenth century with all preceding ages. 

"Taking first those inventions and practical 
applications of science which are perfectly new 
departures, and which have also so rapidly de- 
veloped as to have profoundly affected many of 

1 This little volume was entirely completed before I had access to Mr. 
Wallace's book, but finding the material aspect of the century so excellently 
and concisely treated, I thought it would be profitable in this introductory 
part to quote as I have done — especially for the sake of those who may 
not have access to the "Wonderful Century." 



16 The Closing Century's Heritage 

our habits, and even our thoughts and our lan- 
guage, we find them to be thirteen in number. 

"I, Railways, which have revolutionized 
land-travel and the distribution of commodities. 

' ' 2. Steam-navigation, which has done the 
same thing for ocean travel, and has besides led 
to the entire reconstruction of the navies of the 
world. 

"3. Electric telegraphs, which have produced 
an even greater revolution in the communication 
of thought. 

"4. The telephone, which transmits, or rather 
reproduces, the voice of the speaker at a distance. 

" 5. Friction matches, which have revolution- 
ized the modes of obtaining fire. 

"6. Gas-lighting, which enormously im- 
proved outdoor and other illumination. 

"7. Electric-lighting, another advance, now 
threatening to supersede gas. 

"8. Photography., an art which is to the ex- 
ternal forms of nature what printing is to thought. 

" 9. The phonograph, which preserves and re- 
produces sounds as photography preserves and 
reproduces forms. 

" 10. The Rontgen rays, which render many 
opaque objects transparent, and open up a new 
world to photography. 



The State 17 

"11. Spectrum analysis, which so greatly ex- 
tends our knowledge of the universe that by 
its assistance we are able to ascertain the rela- 
tive heat and chemical constitution of the stars, 
and ascertain the existence, and measure the rate 
of motion, of stellar bodies which are entirely in- 
visible. 

"12. The use of anaesthetics, rendering the 
most severe surgical operations painless. 

" 13. The use of antiseptics in surgical opera- 
tions, which has still further extended the means 
of saving life." 

Then he goes back over the preceding cen- 
turies, and after giving the result of each says : 
" Summing these up, we find only five inventions 
of the first rank in all preceding time — the tele- 
scope, the printing press, the mariner's compass, 
Arabic numerals, and alphabetical writing, to 
which we may add the steam-engine and the 
barometer, making seven in all, as against thir- 
teen in our single century." 

"Coming now to the theoretical discoveries of 
our time, which have extended our knowledge 
or widened our conceptions of the universe, we 
find them to be about equal in number, as fol- 
lows: 

" I. The determination of the mechanical 



18 The Closing Century's Heritage 

equivalent of heat, leading to the great principle 
of the conservation of energy. 

"2. The molecular theory of gases. 

" 3. The mode of direct measurement of the 
velocity of light, and the experimental proof of 
the earth's rotation. 

"4. The discovery of the function of dust in 
nature. 

"5. The theory of definite and multiple pro- 
portions in chemistry. 

"6. The nature of meteors and comets, lead- 
ing to the meteoritic theory of the universe. 

"7. The proof of the glacial epoch, its vast 
extent, and its effects upon the earth's surface. 

" 8. The proof of the great antiquity of man. 

"9. The establishment of the theory of 
organic evolution. 

" 10. The cell theory and the recapitulation 
theory in embryology. 

"11. The germ theory of the zymotic diseases. 

"12. The discovery of the nature and func- 
tion of the white blood-corpuscles." 

Then going back over the theoretical dis- 
coveries of the past, which with one exception 
— Euclid's system of geometry — do not ante-date 
the seventeenth century we find only eight, or to 
use the author's own words: "Thus in all past 



The State 



l 9 



history we find only eight theories or principles 
antecedent to the nineteenth century as com- 
pared with twelve during that century." Fol- 
lowing the more detailed relations of each past 
century with the present, he then places in par- 
allel columns the progress of the nineteenth cen- 
tury in comparison with all preceding ages. 



OF 


THE NINETEENTH CEN- 


OF ALL PRECEDING 




TURY. 




AGES. 


i. 


Railways. 


1. 


The Mariner's Compass. 


2. 


Steamships. 


2. 


The Steam Engine. 


3- 


Electric Telegraphs. 


3- 


The Telescope. 


4- 


The Telephone. 


4. 


The Barometer and Ther- 


5- 


Lucifer Matches. 


mometer. 


6. 


Gas Illumination. 


5- 


Printing. 


7- 


Electric Lighting. 


6. 


Arabic Numerals. 


8. 


Photography. 


7- 


Alphabetical Writing. 


9- 


The Phonograph. 


8. 


Modern Chemistry Founded. 


10. 


R5ntgen Rays. 


9- 


Electric Science Founded. 


11. 


Spectrum Analysis. 


10. 


Gravitation Established. 


12. 


Antiseptic Surgery. 


11. 


Kepler's Laws. 


13. 


Anaesthetics. 


12. 


The Differential Calculus. 


14. 


Conservation of Energy. 


13. 


The Circulation of the Blood. 


i5- 


Molecular Theory of Gases. 


14. 


Light proved to have Finite 


16. 


Velocity of Light Directly 


Velocity. 


Measured, and Earth's Rotation Ex- 


15. 


The Development of Geom- 


perimentally Shown. 


etry. 




17- 


The Uses of Dust. 






18. 


Chemistry, Definite Propor- 






tions. 








19. 


Meteors and the Meteoritic 






Theory. 






20. 


The Glacial Epoch. 






21. 


The Antiquity of Man. 






22. 


Organic Evolution Estab- 






lished 








23. 


Cell Theory and Embry- 






ology 








24. 


Germ Theory of Disease, 






and the Function of the Leucocytes. 







20 The Closing Century's Heritage 

"Of course these numbers are not absolute. 
Either series may be increased or diminished by 
taking account of other discoveries as of equal 
importance, or by striking out some which may 
be considered as below the grade of an impor- 
tant or epoch-making step in science or civiliza- 
tion. But the difference between the two lists is 
so large that probably no competent judge would 
bring them to an equality. . . ." 

" It appears then that the statement in my first 
chapter, that to get any adequate comparison 
with the nineteenth century we must take, not 
any preceding century or group of centuries, but 
rather the whole preceding epoch of human his- 
tory, is justified, and more than justified, by the 
comparative lists now given. And if we take 
into consideration the change effected in science, 
in the arts, in all the possibilities of human inter- 
course, and in the extension of our knowledge, 
both of our earth and the whole visible universe, 
the difference shown by the mere numbers of these 
advances will have to be considerably increased 
on account of the marvellous character and vast 
possibilities of further development of many of 
our recent discoveries. Both as regards the 
number and the quality of its onward advances, 
the age in which we live fully merits the title I 



The State 21 

have ventured to give it of — The Wonderful 
Century." 

This wonderfully vivid portrayal of material 
progress by Mr. Wallace will doubtless prepare 
the mind of the reader of this little volume for 
the more moral aspect of our century's progress, 
which aspect the writer distinctly desires to set 
forth and which any unprejudiced, thoughtful 
mind, must unmistakingly recognize at the close 
of this ''Wonderful Century." All the nations 
of the world, and all the departments of life 
have manifested and are manifesting a progress- 
ive spirit. Progress has not only been a striking 
reality to the nations which pray "Thy kingdom 
come. Thy will be done," but progress has been 
a reality to all nations howsoever realized and at- 
tained — and whether they are fully aware of it 
or not. For instance, China has been awakened 
by her war with Japan; Spain is wiser and we 
hope kindlier because of her war with America. 

But so great has been the progress of the last 
fifty years, that the word progress in itself — 
which may mean any degree of growth in ad- 
vance of stagnation — seems an indefinite and in- 
adequate expression for the last half century's 
advances. Progress, in the sense of mere evolu- 
tion, is only in keeping with a rational concep- 



22 The Closing Century's Heritage 

tion of God's way of working all the time, and 
at any time. Even the most Godless evolution 
would admit progress of this kind and degree. 

The last four or five decades have been dec- 
ades of more than a mere evolutionary progress. 
This might be all that we could claim, did we 
not recognize as Supreme Originator and Con- 
troller of everything worthy of progress, a living, 
personal, God and Father. But when we can see 
in addition to the natural the special intervention 
of the Divine, when we can see spiritual law in 
the natural world, as well as " Natural Law in 
the Spiritual World"; in short, when we can see 
the recognition of the two as one in God, and 
realize that this conception has developed more 
rapidly during the past half century than ever 
before, then it is, that we feel the insufficiency 
of the word progress as commonly understood. 
So rapidly have we progressed that our century's 
evening time, in comparison with the past, might 
be called the evening time of light. 

The Closing Century's Heritage is Light. Light, 
which enables us to see the result of our past 
progress. Light, which enables us to see the 
things of the world in their relationship to God. 
Light, which enables us to see God in His re- 
lationship to the things of the world. Light, in 



The State 23 

a word, for what we are accustomed to look 
upon in the sense of "secular" as distinct from 
"sacred," that removes much of this distinc- 
tion, and enables us to see that what God hath 
cleansed, we have no right to look upon as sec- 
ular as opposed to sacred; but that those things 
which necessarily belong to the affairs of the 
world, are just as much a part of the things of 
God, as are the things, which we have hitherto 
fenced around, with what almost might be called 
sacred superstitions. 

The absolute divorce of church and state can 
never stand. The principles of righteousness 
must be carried into the affairs of the state in 
the future, or the practice of hypocrisy must be 
carried into the church. 

Churchmanship and statesmanship must go 
hand-in-hand with the twentieth-century Chris- 
tian as they have never gone hand-in-hand be- 
fore. 

The Christian statesman, or Christian citizen, 
or Christian public official, high or low, can no 
longer treat church and state as distinct and sep- 
arate institutions, requiring attitude and action 
born of sacred motives on the one hand and 
secular motives on the other. This one thing 
in church, and another thing in state, this du- 



24 The Closing Century's Heritage 

plicity of attitude, is realized and recognized as 
inconsistent. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde can no 
longer be two in one. He must be either Dr. 
Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. The church stands for more 
to-day than a congregation of sanctimonious- 
looking people, and the state stands for more 
than a department of the world requiring secular 
rather than sacred control. 

Some one may say, " Has not the church al- 
ways stood for more than a congregation of 
sanctimonious-looking people, and has not the 
state always recognized a Supreme Ruler ?" Yes 
and no. The church I will treat in a separate 
chapter. As to the recognition of a Supreme 
Ruler by the state, yes and no, seems to be the 
only truthful way to answer the question. Per- 
haps yes and no, would make my answer to the 
question clearer, if I should add two words, and 
say yes theoretically, and no practically. 

And as an explanation of the difference be- 
tween the recognition of a Supreme Being theo- 
retically and practically, I would refer you to the 
thought back of, and connected with the phrase, 
church and state, in itself. Why this decided 
distinction in phraseology, unless with the origin 
of the phrase, sacred and secular was the basis 
of the distinction ? And if so be, that this differ- 



The State 25 

ence exists, does it not look as if we recognized 
God as the rightful Head of the one, but only as 
the "figure-head" of the other? Some prob- 
lems we can separate and distinguish between, 
for logical purposes, which cannot be separated 
and distinguished between for practical purposes, 
and church and state may be one of these prob- 
lems. But if God is recognized as the founda- 
tion of both then the practical working of both, 
should be in keeping with the principles of Him 
who is counted worthy of being the right foun- 
dation. God has not one set of principles for 
sacred things, and another set of principles for 
secular things. God is love. God is truth. 
God is justice. He wants to be recognized as 
the Head and Foundation of such institutions 
and departments of life as only Love, Truth and 
Justice can be practically exercised in. 

Now that these principles of righteousness, be- 
cause they are principles of righteousness, have 
not been a part of the state's life in the past, as 
they should have been, all I think will agree. 
They have not been recognized as they should 
have been, not because the chief magistrates and 
their counsellors have all or always been ungodly 
leaders, but because even with God-fearing rulers 
and God-fearing counsellors, there has been what 



26 The Closing Century's Heritage 

might be called an inherited consciousness, of a 
distinct breach, and difference, between their re- 
ligious life and their official life. 

Mark you, I do not mean to say, that the God- 
fearing magistrates of our Christian nations, (and 
there have been many), have not been influenced 
in their state relations by their church relations, 
but, that they have done the right and right- 
eous thing, not because of their conscious reali- 
zation that church and state are, and ought to 
be one in motive, but because of their concep- 
tion of right and righteousness received through 
the church they could not do otherwise than 
right. That is to say they did right in a me- 
chanical manner rather than right for right's 
sake. The motor power in their lives has been 
the church, but the motive power has been 
neither single nor distinct. Their state life 
has borne the same relation to their church life, 
that the completed conveniences of the trolley 
car bear to the motor brake. The motorman 
sounds the gong with his foot, as a warning of 
the car's approach, and with a desire to avoid all 
accidents. The conductor rings his little bell as 
a signal to stop or go ahead, but these are only 
the completed conveniences, things which are 
done well, but done mechanically and according 



The State 27 

to rule — almost motiveless actions. But to start 
or stop the car, to hasten or slacken its speed, 
the motor brake is grasped with a motive. The 
motorman sounds the gong with his foot uncon- 
sciously and from habit oftentimes, but he never 
turns his brake in either direction without having 
a motive back of his motion. To the Christian 
statesman and Christian citizen, the affairs of 
state, have been too much as the "completed 
conveniences"; many things have been done 
well, but done mechanically and according to 
rule rather than done from a sacred motive, with 
an eye single to God's honor and God's glory. 

But the relationship between church and state 
no longer remains distinct, indefinite, or, as a 
matter of little or minor importance, to the 
enlightened Christian citizen. Our Christianity 
must be a part of our daily duty, and practice in 
every direction, or rather our daily duty and 
practice in every direction, must be a part of our 
Christianity. The enlightened Christian citizen 
can no longer have one code of action for sacred 
things and another code for secular things. 

Neither can the enlightened Christian citizen 
throw off his personal responsibility in the affairs 
of state, in these closing years of this nineteenth 
century, without the consciousness that he is 



28 The Closing Century's Heritage 

guilty of shirking his duty. You notice I have 
used the word enlightened. I might have used 
any other word that would serve to designate 
that class of Christian citizens, who are living 
up to the light and knowledge of our present 
age. 

Do not think for a moment that I am uncon- 
scious of our present darkness. Do not think for 
a moment that I mean to claim light as above 
described, as world-wide light, or even light as 
above described, for all the people of our own 
Christian America, or for all the Christians of our 
own Christian America. But I do mean to claim, 
that the light of our sacred duty is shining into 
the hearts of more Christians, with more enlight- 
ening power as to the relationship between the 
kingdoms of this world, and the kingdom of God 
upon earth than ever before in the history of the 
world. 

Not long ago, while riding down the Mohawk 
Valley on a New York Central train in the early 
part of the day, looking off and up to the hills in 
the distance, I saw what seemed to me to be a 
perfect illustration of the thought, which I 
wanted to make plain as the Closing Century's 
Heritage. It was a hazy morning, and particu- 
larly so as I looked off among the hills. Sud- 



The State 29 

denly my eyes rested on a spot on the side of 
the hills, which glittered as if an electric light 
was being focused on a reflector somewhere in 
the locality of that bright spot. I stared for a 
moment or two almost unconscious of the mean- 
ing of that bright and shining spot in the midst 
of all these acres, covered with mist and indis- 
tinctness. Another moment and I saw the ex- 
planation. There was a rift in the clouds just 
over this spot, and through that rift was shining 
a part of the brightness of the sun, which above 
the clouds was not only brightening a spot but 
brightening and burnishing the entire heavens, 
and so, I thought is the Closing Century's Heri- 
tage. It is not yet a universal diffusion of light, 
but it is even now the closing century's heritage 
as an individual appropriation and possession, 
and as the appropriation and possession of cer- 
tain communities. 

For proof of the individual appropriation and 
possession it may hardly seem necessary to cite 
any definite or single illustration, and yet one 
incident illustrative of this point cannot be passed 
by unnoticed by one who is a resident of the 
Mohawk Valley. I refer to the late Robert Ross, 
of Troy, N. Y., who died a martyr to the cause 
of Christian citizenship while defending the 



30 The Closing Century's Heritage 

purity of the ballot at the polls in that city in 
March, 1894. To the memory of the murdered 
man there stands on a hill in Oakwood Cemetery 
a bronze statue, seventeen feet high, protecting 
a ballot box and defending the shield of the state 
from stain. Well might the motto inscribed 
thereon read, " Martyr to right; well done." 
This monument stands not only as a memorial 
of the relationship of church life to civic life in 
Robert Ross, but it stands as an illustration of 
public appreciation of the martyr's motive and as 
a public recognition of the sacredness of the 
ballot. 

Thousands of scattered individuals can testify 
to the enlightened conception of the relation of 
church and state, which has become theirs in the 
closing years of this century. As an illustration 
of certain communities appropriating and pos- 
sessing this light, I need only refer to that mag- 
nificent illustration of principle transcending party 
in the recent municipal contest for mayor in 
Greater New York, inaugurated and manned by 
the Citizens' Union — the result of a rift in the 
cloud — a rift that is not necessarily going to 
mean the formation of a new national party, but 
a rift that is going to wonderfully help reform 
and purify the old ones. It is not only a rift in 



The State 31 

the cloud, however, because God is withholding 
the entire light and brightness from us, but be- 
cause we are withholding ourselves from God. 
We are yet without the universal diffusion of 
light, not because the light shineth not in dark- 
ness, but because men love darkness rather than 
light; because their deeds are evil. 

Nearly nineteen hundred years ago, our present 
great majority and small minority were ex- 
plained by Him who knew what was in the 
hearts of men when He said, "Every one that 
doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the 
light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he 
that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds 
may be made manifest that they are wrought in 
God." Always remember though, that we are in 
the minority at the present time only from the 
worldly point of view. To Him to whom the 
nations are as a drop of the bucket, and are 
counted as the small dust of the balance, we are 
in the majority even now. Although only a hu- 
man utterance Wendell Phillips spoke a divine 
thought, when he said, "One on God's side is a 
majority." It is the parallel thought in state 
affairs to the inspired thought in church affairs, 
" If God is with us none can be against us." 

In the "Conclusion" of the "Wonderful Cen- 



32 The Closing Century's Heritage 

tury," Part II., of which book is devoted to the 
"failures" of the century, the author, whether 
because he wants to adhere strictly to the thought 
of "failures" or whether he knows of no moral 
"successes," makes some very discouraging as 
well as questionable statements concerning that 
which he himself chooses to designate as the 
"Wonderful Century." Here are two of his 
concluding remarks: "Instead of devoting the 
highest powers of our greatest men to remedy 
these evils, we see the governments of the mosl 
advanced nations arming their people to the 
teeth, and expending much of their wealth and 
all the resources of their science, in preparation 
for the destruction of life, of property, and of 
happiness. . . . When the brightness of future 
ages shall have dimmed the glamour of our ma- 
terial progress, the judgment of history will surely 
be that the ethical standard of our rulers was a 
deplorably low one, and that we were unworthy 
to possess the great and beneficent powers that 
science had placed in our hands." 

Is not this the language of moral pessimism ? 
How can such language be harmonized either 
logically or consistently with what immediately 
follows ? 

"But although this century has given us so 



The State 33 

many examples of failure, it has also given us 
hope for the future. True humanity, the de- 
termination that the crying social evils of our 
time shall not continue; the certainty that they 
can be abolished; an unwavering faith in human 
nature, have never been so strong, so vigorous, 
so rapidly growing as they are to-day. The 
flowing tide is with us. We have great poets, 
great writers, great thinkers, to cheer and guide 
us ; and an ever-increasing band of earnest work- 
ers to spread the light and help on the good time 
coming." 

Of course "It is better farther on." But why 
rob the past and the present of what rightfully 
belongs to them ? Why make the failure of the 
"Great Powers" to protect the Armenians "the 
crowning proof of the utter rottenness of the 
boasted civilization of the nineteenth century" 
as Mr. Wallace has done ? Some of these " Great 
Powers " to-day perhaps are sorry they did not 
interfere. Of course mistakes have been made 
and opportunities have been lost, but such con- 
fessions are neither proofs of barbarous motives 
for war nor of a deplorably low ethical standard 
in our rulers. Cuba's freedom, won for her 
through a unique motive belongs to the nine- 
teenth century. So also do Lincoln and Glad- 



34 The Closing Century's Heritage 

stone, McKinley and Victoria. Such incidents 
and such characters the future will not despise. 

Prophetic foresight is not required to be able to 
perceive the steadily increasing righteous minor- 
ity. The lump is being leavened, not only 
steadily but positively. Observation of our pres- 
ent statesmanship and its effects cannot but cor- 
roborate our faith in the progress of righteous- 
ness. 

The things that are Caesar's are being as con- 
scientiously performed by many as are the things 
that are God's. God, as a God of nations and 
national affairs, as well as a God of individuals 
and individual affairs, rules and reigns trium- 
phant, as never before. The world is learning 
that "righteousness exalteth a nation, and that 
sin is a reproach to any people." 



II 

THE CHURCH 
" Ye are the light of the world." — Matthew v. 14. 

The closing century's heritage for the church, 
is as great proportionately, as is the closing cen- 
tury's heritage for the state. 

If the state realizes its relationship to the church 
as never before, the church realizes its relation- 
ship to Christ as never before. 

If the state's heritage from the nineteenth cen- 
tury is an enlightened conception of its duty in 
civil affairs, the church's heritage is an enlight- 
ened conception of its responsibility in spiritual 
affairs. If church life must be carried into state 
life, more abundant Christ life must be carried 
into church life. And so, this realization on the 
part of the church, is bringing out the distinct 
and definite object of the church, namely, the 
manifesting by the body of which Christ is the 
Head, the life and principles of the kingdom of 
God. If the church fails to make this revelation 
to the world, it falls far short of its Founder's 
purpose. Thus far, God has always guided and 
controlled the church to this end, causing even 

35 



36 The Closing Century's Heritage 

our mistakes to work together for good, and for 
the fuller knowledge and enlightenment, which 
even now it is our privilege to receive. But the 
responsibility and accountability of the future He 
is committing more fully to us. This does not 
mean the withdrawal of God's guiding and con- 
trolling hand from His church, but it means that 
God is committing to us, the members of His; 
church, guiding and controlling understanding in 
the affairs of His church, which He will not have 
to overrule, because we have ignorantly made 
mistakes. He will be able to bless what we do 
without causing good to come out of evil. 

He will work with us, rather than work 
through us; He will supplement our efforts, 
rather than overrule our efforts, if we are faith- 
ful to the light He is giving us for guidance, if 
the light of Divine truth as it shines for us is 
followed and obeyed. God has never before en- 
trusted the church with such responsibility, for 
which He is going to hold it accountable. He 
has never revealed our duty so plainly, throwing 
to a larger extent than ever before, the future 
destiny of the church upon our shoulders. 

Two things very noticeable and very closely 
associated as the closing century's heritage for 
the church, are Breadth and Depth. 



The Church 37 

We have a breadth and depth hitherto un- 
known since Apostolic times, a broadening and 
a deepening consistent and Scriptural. 

Consider the latter first. How is the church 
deepening, or what depth have we peculiar to 
the present, that we have not always had ? 

We are beginning to differentiate between 
church and congregation, as has not been done 
before since the early days of the church. 

If church and state have been too much di- 
vided, church and congregation have been too 
much confounded. The God-intended distinc- 
tion between the church and the crowd has been 
;>adly obliterated. 

"There is an immense distinction between a 
church and a congregation, although the two are 
oftentimes confounded. 

"A congregation is an aggregation of unrelated 
people, a crowd of men and women flocked to- 
gether in a certain place at certain times. But a 
Christian church is more than a flock. It is a 
brotherhood, a band of believers whose interests 
are interlocked, whose hopes and ambitions, 
sympathies and loves are intertwined, whose 
lives are interlaced and blended, a company of 
disciples compacted together, fused into one 
body for worship and work. We have many 



38 The Closing Century's Heritage 

congregations. Alas, not every congregation is 
a church ! " 

When the Founder of the church asked, Who 
do men say that the Son of Man is ? And when 
Peter answered "Thou art the Christ the Son of 
the living God," it was to the rock principle of 
truth contained in Peter's answer, that Jesus said 
"Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and 
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my 
Father which is in heaven. And I also say unto 
thee that thou art Peter (nirpos) and upon this 
rock (ntrpa) — this rock truth — I will build my 
church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail 
against it." — R. v. It is Christ who is the Head 
and Foundation of the church and not Peter. 

And only in so far as our different denomina- 
tional folds — our church members and the mem- 
bers of our congregations — are builded upon, and 
are living upon, the rock principle of truth con- 
tained in Peter's answer, are we as individual 
members, and individual denominations, a part 
of that church, which shall become one flock, 
one shepherd. As different denominations, pro- 
fessedly confessing to be a part of the church of 
Christ, we have been lax in our desires and 
efforts, to make and keep our different folds, as 
separate from the world, and pure, as they ought 



The Church 39 

to be. As a church, we have not cooperated 
with our great Head and Meditator as we should 
have for purity. We have seemingly lost the 
Pauline conception of Christ's desire for His 
church: " Husbands, love your wives even as 
Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for 
it: that He might present it to Himself a glori- 
ous church not having spot or wrinkle or any 
such thing, but that it should be holy and with- 
out blemish." The church to-day is spotted and 
wrinkled and blemished, much more than it 
ought to be and much more than it might be, if 
shepherds and sheep had not lost the lofty con- 
ception of the church's origin and infancy. 

The church therefore has received and is re- 
ceiving, a new and deepening sense of separation 
from the world: a new depth of insight into 
what God intended the church to be, a depth of 
insight that will bear fruit in every department of 
church life. 

But along with the heritage of depth, and not 
less significant of God's wondrous blessings 
vouchsafed to us, in the closing years of this 
century, is the heritage of breadth — breadth of 
vision, breadth of realization. For any one de- 
nomination to lay claim to the only system of 
truth and government in which its adherents can 



40 The Closing Century's Heritage 

glorify God consistently with the divine system, 
is simply preposterous. And yet, notwithstand- 
ing the absurdity of such a position, there are 
those who do even now claim the absolute, and 
hosts of others who have only recently been re- 
leased from such self-centred narrowness. The 
absurdity of such a position can only be fully re- 
alized, when we read a paragraph like the fol- 
lowing from the report of the World's Student 
Christian Federation : 

"The first convention of the World's Student 
Christian Federation, since its organization in 
Sweden in 1895, was held in the United States of 
America, in July, 1897. The regular Federation 
delegates first met at Northfield in conjunction 
with the annual conference of the American and 
Canadian intercollegiate Young Men's Christian 
Association. In addition to the 600 students 
from 136 universities and colleges of the United 
States and Canada, there were present students 
and Christian workers representing twenty-five 
other nations or races. They represented Orient 
and Occident, northern hemispheres and southern 
hemispheres, all of the six continents of the 
globe, as well as the islands of the Pacific and 
southern seas. Delegates were registered from 
not less than thirty-six denominations or branches 



The Church 41 

of the all-embracing church of Christ and from 
all the five great races of mankind." 

Just think of it, delegates from thirty-six de- 
nominations, all of whom would unquestionably 
say concerning Jesus, "Thou art the Christ, the 
Son of the Living God." Thus we can readily 
see the breadth of vision and realization which is 
our heritage: we can readily see that the distinc- 
tions marked by our denominational names, need 
not necessarily mean distinctions in Christian 
character and Christian spirit. 

Now this depth and breadth as above described, 
although significant of enriched Christian char- 
rcter, does not blind us to our present faults, but 
rather compels improvement along certain lines 
of church administration and control. 

Our great error has been the one already alluded 
to, namely, church and congregation have been 
too much confounded. We have merged the 
two to such an extent, that the divine institution, 
the church, has become contaminated by our 
failure to keep separate and distinct the one from 
the other. Because of our sinful selfishness to go 
outside of our church membership for officers 
who will be social and financial pillars in the 
church, and because of our mistaken human 
charity which sees in some moral living people, 



42 The Closing Century's Heritage 

Christianity, because of these sinful motives and 
mistaken kindnesses, we have added officers and 
members to the church of Christ, as ignorant of 
spiritual things as was Nicodemus that night in 
which he asked Jesus " How can a man be born 
when he is old ? How can these things be ? " 

We see the sad mistake of such church admin- 
istration, when we turn to a picture of Apostolic 
church methods as recorded in the sixth chap- 
ter of the Acts, verses 2, 3, and 4. "Then the 
twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto 
them, and said, It is not reason that we should 
leave the word of God and serve tables, where- 
fore brethren look ye out among you seven men 
of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and wis- 
dom, whom we may appoint over this business, 
but we will give ourselves continually to prayer 
and to the ministry of the Word." 

In this reference which was the incident that 
called the martyr Stephen into specific church 
activity, we get a glimpse into Apostolic church 
government. If men full of the Holy Ghost — 
men like Stephen — were the requisite men for 
emporal affairs, how exalted were their require- 
ments as compared with what the church has 
)een practicing. 

A man of good business ability is enough to 



The Church 43 

satisfy some churches as to fitness for official 
position. A man of high moral character is 
enough to satisfy others, while others are satis- 
fied with a mere passive goodness. Compare 
these requirements with those already referred to 
in the above quotation. "Wherefore brethren 
look ye out among you seven men of honest re- 
port, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. Not 
one commendable quality, but three, and three 
reasonable requirements too, — a man with no 
moral blot upon his character in the eyes of the 
community, a man whose faith is proved by his 
works, a man of sanctified common sense. If 
you cannot find as many such officials as you 
want, use as many as you have, and do not add 
other helpers lacking these qualities either from 
within the church or without unless absolutely 
necessary. These elements of Christian charac- 
ter in those who administer the affairs of the 
church — major as well as minor — have not been 
as earnestly desired as they should have been. 

Church officers and officials, chosen only be- 
cause of their social and financial standing is an 
insult to Christ who established His church upon 
truth and love, and is a stumbling-block and rock 
of offence to the world, which the church is in- 
tended to regenerate. Principle must ever tran- 



44 The Closing Century's Heritage 

scend policy if the church would fulfill her mis- 
sion, and exercise her magnetism. The church 
and the congregation, or the disciples and the 
multitude have lost to an unfortunate extent 
their original — their Scriptural and their practi- 
cal — distinction. Not only by admitting to official 
position men and women improperly qualified, 
but by admitting into the communion of the 
church many who are strangers to the new birth. 
How unfortunately true is the remark that we 
sometimes hear, that i( A large proportion of the 
Christians in our congregations to-day would 
have to be placarded in order to be distinguished 
from the people of the world." Its truthfulness 
being recognized not only by the world's people, 
but by ourselves — the people of the church also. 
And it has all come from mixing the world with 
the church, or rather from mixing the church 
with the world. That is to say, instead of the 
church retaining her exalted position in Christ 
Jesus and lifting the world to her high plane, she 
has stooped, — perhaps to conquer — but in her 
stooping has been partially conquered. 

I know that Jesus said, ''Let both grow to- 
gether until the harvest," and that among the 
twelve of his own choice there was a Judas, and 
that with all the carefulness possible there will be 



The Church 45 

tares among the wheat, goats among the sheep, 
and wolves in sheep's clothing. But even allow- 
ing for these things which Jesus Himself seem- 
ingly could not prevent, must we not as a church 
confess, that we have allowed many tares to be 
rooted, many goats to be pastured, and many 
wolves to enter through the door of the sheep- 
fold, who at the time they came into the church, 
if we had remembered Christ's standard for 
admission to discipleship, "Ye must be born 
again," and had we as a church insisted on the 
necessary fulfillment of that condition, we would 
never have had many of the tares and the goats 
and the wolves, that to-day are choking the 
wheat, starving the sheep and worrying the 
flock. The "necessary fulfillment of that con- 
dition " does not consist in extracting from the 
individual, vows to local denominational church 
rules: neither does it consist in a denominational 
theological examination — it is the accepting of 
Christ as "The way, the truth and the life": the 
accepting of Christ conscientiously and under- 
standing^ as Saviour, as Master, as Lord. " Be- 
ing born again " can mean neither more nor less 
than such allegiance. The individual experiences 
of regeneration and conversion may differ very 
greatly. With some it may be a simple, "I 



46 The Closing Century's Heritage 

will" to the still small voice "Follow me." With 
others it may be an experience like unto that of 
the Apostle Paul. With some "the hour they 
first believed" may be very vivid: with others 
it may be very vague. But whether vague or 
vivid, Paul-like or John-like, matters little, if 
Christ is accepted as Saviour and followed as 
Master, and worshipped as Lord. Such relation- 
ship to Christ ought to be required of every in- 
dividual received into the church, for his own 
sake, as well as for the sake of the church. 

Instead of the church v being looked upon to- 
day as God's "peculiar people," loving one an- 
other, sacrificing for one another, living for one 
another, in order to fulfill Christ's commands; 
instead of the church being looked upon to-day 
as the body of which Christ is the Head, possess- 
ing these Christlike characteristics, it is looked 
upon as a body of quite respectable people, not 
very different from any other morally select fra- 
ternal organization. Lack of carefulness and dis- 
crimination in the reception of members, and an 
unwise choice of officials have been the means 
of lowering the church in the eyes of those who 
are without, and also of lowering the life of the 
church within. The world does not exclaim of 
us as they exclaimed of the early church, "Be- 



The Church 47 

hold how they love one another!'' Of course 
we support great missionary and philanthropic 
enterprises; of course we do a great many com- 
mendable and laudable things which the early 
church did not do, "But these things ye ought 
to have done and not to have left the others 
undone." It is not a matter of thus far shalt 
thou go and no farther: enlarge as much as 
possible upon Apostolic practice, but not at the 
expense of Apostolic principle. 

Money cannot atone for lack of consecration, 
but consecration would soon atone for our pres- 
ent deficiency in money which is so crippling 
our world-wide work. Granting for the sake of 
argument, that there is no financial deficiency in 
the church, would such a blessed assumption, if 
it were a reality, necessarily mean that all is well. 

A church may have a great financial record. 
Every member in it may tithe his or her income. 
Foreign missions as well as home missions may 
never be forgotten, nor ever stinted. In short 
every enterprise or want, major or minor, local 
or foreign, philanthropic or spiritual, having a 
rightful claim, may be supported, and yet all may 
not be well. Such a record of course is very 
creditable, but you can conceive of a church 
with such a pride for its past record, with such 



48 The Closing Century's Heritage 

an ambition for its present record, and with such 
selfishness for its future record, striving to do all 
these and even more, and after all not transcend- 
ing in motive and spirituality the Pharisee who 
stood praying, " God I thank Thee that I am not 
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, 
or even as this publican, I fast twice in the week, 
I give tithes of all I possess." High, exceedingly 
high morality, but low, exceedingly low spiritu- 
ality. 

This parable of the Pharisee and publican re- 
veals a possibility in this direction, not only for 
the individual man or woman but for the indi- 
vidual church. It shows us how near and yet 
how far we may be from the genuine require- 
ments of God. Except our righteousness shall 
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Phari- 
sees we shall in no wise enter into the kingdom 
of heaven. 

Let us never mistake Pharisaic deeds and Phar- 
isaic motives in our church life for Christlike 
deeds and Christlike motives. Let us never be 
satisfied with a mere financial record, because 
such a record may not exceed the righteousness 
named above. 

Foreign mission collections are not always 
a guarantee of home mission consecration. A 



The Church 49 

church may become a slave to habit as well as an 
individual, and so may do many righteous-look- 
ing things, without any righteous motive. It is 
the church work that is done in the purity of 
spirit of him who prayed " God be merciful to 
me a sinner," that receives the Master's approval; 
and it is the church collections given in the spirit 
of her who passed in but two mites, that God 
can use to evangelize the world. 

God can do more with a broken sentence and 
a broken dollar offered in Jesus' name, than He 
can do with a hundred sermons, and a million 
dollars offered merely for the sake of talking and 
the sake of giving. 

Not long ago I was present at a meeting of 
a church society where the question came up, 
''What disposition shall we make of a certain 
amount of surplus money this year ? " Some one 
asked, "What did we do with the surplus last 
year?" Some one else said, "I move that we 
do the same as we did last year." The motion 
was seconded, unanimously carried, and so half 
of the amount was given to a foreign cause and 
half to a home cause. No prayer offered that 
God might bless the gift; no prayer offered that 
God might use the gift, done simply in a cold, 
business manner, without any distinct desire or 



50 The Closing Century's Heritage 

hope that God might use it to relieve a suffering 
body or save a dying soul. And so we may 
contribute and disburse in this indefinite and un- 
spiritual way — glorifying in appearance and not 
in heart, deceiving ourselves oftentimes, unless 
we search and try our ways. No mere church 
records minus spirituality, can be records accept- 
able to God. 

Of course He wants our money, but He wants 
our hearts and our life allegiance, and if we give 
Him these and then give our money because it is 
a part of these, He can use it not only to bless 
the world but to bless the giver. 

But to recognize only the faults and failures in 
connection with church administration and con- 
trol, would be unjust, unnecessary, as well as 
inconsistent with what in the beginning of this 
chapter I mentioned as breadth and depth. 

Although referring to those things above men- 
tioned as faults and failures, nevertheless our 
recognition of them as such is complimentary to 
the present — a practical result of our deepening 
spiritual perception. In addition to this desire to 
make better and purer our old methods, we have 
also added new and broader methods. 

To speak of the missionary and Sunday-school 
movements as new methods of working would 



The Church 51 

scarcely seem permissible, and yet to pass them 
by unnoticed would seem less permissible. 
They are not new as others are to which ref- 
erence will be made later, but in their present 
fitness — one might almost say perfected fitness — 
for the accomplishing of the intended work of 
each, they stand as two of the great new friends 
of church organization and church efficiency. 

In "A Concise History of Missions" by Edwin 
Munnsell Bliss, there is a table of the principal 
foreign missionary societies, with the date of 
organization. Three belong to the seventeenth 
century, nine belong to the eighteenth century, 
while ninety up to 1891, belong to the nineteenth 
century. A like progress and proportion might 
also be claimed for the Sunday-school of the 
nineteenth century. From the few scattered 
Sunday-schools at the beginning of the century 
we can now number schools by the thousands, 
and teachers and scholars by the millions. It has 
become a world-wide organization. 

According to statistics of 1893, compiled for 
the World's Sunday-school Convention at St. 
Louis, Mo., the totals of the table show 224,562 
schools, 2,239,728 teachers, 20,268,933 scholars. 
The United States alone has 123,173 schools, 
1,303,939 teachers and 9,718,432 scholars. It is 



52 The Closing Century's Heritage 

hard to deprive either of these organizations of 
classification with new or modern methods when 
we realize their relationship as they now exist to 
nineteenth century progress. 

But apart from these two mighty and magnifi- 
cent world-wide activities there are certain new 
and broader methods particularly modern. One 
of these is the Young Peoples' Society of Chris- 
tian Endeavor; "An organized religious move- 
ment, which numbers within its ranks a million 
and a half young people of both sexes. The 
Society of Christian Endeavor is a purely reli- 
gious organization, though there may be social 
features, literary features, and musical features 
connected with it. In fact, the society is meant 
to do anything that the church wishes to have it 
do. The scope of its energies is almost limitless. 
It may relieve the destitute, visit the sick, furnish 
flowers for the pulpit, replenish the missionary 
treasury, build up the Sunday-school, awaken 
an interest in the temperance cause, preach a 
'White-Cross Crusade/" Then there are the 
kindred organizations, the Epworth League of 
the Methodist church and the Baptist Young 
Peoples' Union of the Baptist church; also the 
Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip, The Boys' 
Brigade and similar movements. 



The Church 53 

The Young Men's Christian Association is per- 
haps less vitally connected with the church than 
the organizations named above, and yet who 
would dare separate it from church activity when 
the whole young man for Christ is the founda- 
tion principle of the institution. 

Another one of our new and broad methods of 
working for Christ is the institutional church. 
This I believe the future will recognize as one of 
God's specially approved modern methods. I 
have called it a modern method: this is true only 
in so far as it is controlled by our modern meth- 
ods. The spirit and principle at the bottom of 
institutional church work is as old as the spirit 
and principles of the Saviour's church work. 
Eating with publicans and sinners, preparing 
breakfast for a company of weary and faint fish- 
ermen, ministering to the body as well as to the 
soul, to the head as well as to the heart, these are 
the institutional church methods of the Saviour. 
We have yet to perform our first consistent mod- 
ern act in our institutional churches, which the 
Son of God did not inaugurate nearly nineteen 
hundred years ago. The modern institutional 
church that adheres to the institutional church 
principles of Jesus, with our modern facilities for 
their accomplishment, is the church that can do 



54 The Closing Century's Heritage 

the largest work for God. It may not be wise or 
necessary for every church to be an institutional 
church in the sense of modern equipment for 
institutional church work. Whether a church 
should or should not be institutional in its meth- 
ods, depends largely upon the class of people 
who attend it, and the class of people who live 
round about it. If the homes are unattractive 
and devoid of the requirements and legitimate 
desires of youth, — intellectual, social, physical, — 
then there is open to the church an opportunity 
to supply these home lacks by furnishing the 
reading room, the game room, the sewing 
room, the gymnasium or whatever in the judg- 
ment of the church is most desirable for the 
community. If the boys and girls can be made 
to feel that the church is their larger home, the 
place where their spare evenings can be most en- 
joyably and most profitably spent, the place 
where Christ is not only preached on Sundays but 
revealed in kindness and helpfulness on the other 
days of the week, then it would be fulfilling its 
whole mission to that community. 

One of the grandest features of the institutional 
church, as well as of many other new methods of 
church work is the aim to save the children. 
This is one of the strongest recommendations in 



The Church 55 

their favor. The strength of the church is in the 
children and the present is wise enough to grasp 
the opportunity. Of course the institutional 
church methods have their dangers — every good 
thing has. But if Christ's motive for doing such 
work is kept ever in mind, the dangers will be 
avoided, and the desired results accomplished. 
Jesus ate with publicans and sinners, not simply 
because He wished to get acquainted with them, 
but because He wanted to break to them the 
" Bread of Life." He prepared breakfast for 
the weary fishermen not simply because He 
desired to relieve their physical weakness and 
satisfy their physical hunger; He caused the deaf 
to hear, the blind to see, and the lame to walk, 
not simply because of His sympathy for afflicted 
and suffering human nature. Ah no! but He did 
all these kindly, beneficial and beautiful things, 
only that He might be able to minister to the sole 
needs of men. 

" Ye must be born again/' was the ever unob- 
scured requirement for mankind, always stamped 
upon the Saviour's heart, mind and eye, wherever 
He went and in whatever He did. Any kind of 
church work and church life that has not the 
reaching' of men in this deeper sense, its motive 
and object, is only tending to degenerate rather 



56 The Closing Century's Heritage 

than regenerate the church of Christ, tending to 
make the church and the crowd one, obliterating 
the divine distinction between church and con- 
gregation. If the church of the twentieth century 
fails to accomplish great things for God it will 
not be the fault of our methods, but our motives. 
The church was never so magnificently organized 
as it is to-day, and never nearer the spiritual con- 
dition where all can concientiously sing : 

" Like a mighty army moves the church of God ; 
Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod ; 
We are not divided, all one body we ; 
One in hope and doctrine, one in charity." 



Ill 

THE BIBLE 

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my 
path." — Ps. cxix. 105. 

The words of the prophet, " The grass wither- 
eth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God 
shall stand forever/' remain almost as unques- 
tionably true to-day as they did before question- 
ings arose. 

Not only have the grasses of many centuries 
withered, and the flowers of many seasons 
faded, but the criticisms and comments of many 
worldly-wise critics have withered and faded also, 
while the Bible, " the word of our God," remains 
steadfast, immovable, always revealing the wis- 
dom of God. 

It has been more than a conqueror in every 
conflict. It has been " weighed in the balances " 
of history, philosophy, and science, and in so far 
as its pretensions or intentions to teach either are 
concerned, it has not been "found wanting." If 
the 617 scientific men of the British Association, 
which met in 1865, could meet again in the 

67 



58 The Closing Century's Heritage 

closing years of our century, methinks they 
would all sign anew a part at least, of the declara- 
tion they signed at that time, namely, " We con- 
ceive that it is impossible for the word of God as 
written in the Book of Nature and God's word 
written in Holy Scriptures to contradict one an- 
other, however much they may appear to differ. 

n We are not forgetful that physical science is 
not complete but is only in a condition of 
progress, and that at present our finite reason 
enables us to see as through a glass darkly, and 
we confidently believe that a time will come 
when the two records will be seen to agree in 
every particular. ,, Although this time of obvious 
agreement in every particular has not yet fully 
come, nevertheless there is no doubt but that it is 
coming, and nearer than ever before, notwith- 
standing our profusion of modern, scholarly 
antagonisms between science and scripture. We 
are learning that science is a friend and not a foe 
to scripture. 

We are passing beyond that stage of fearful- 
ness, wherein we were afraid of scientific in- 
vestigation and light. We have learned that 
whatever is true in scientific discovery is scrip- 
tural, and that whatever of scripture is scientific 
is modern always. We have learned that science 



The Bible 59 

and scripture have the same foundation, that they 
are two parts of one great whole, which when 
properly understood will both glorify God. 
Truth belongs to God wherever it may be found, 
and "we," according to the great lover and de- 
fender of truth, the Apostle Paul, "can do noth- 
ing against the truth but for the truth." 

Even the irreverent, self-contained, and self- 
explained scholar, unconsciously and uninten- 
tionally, adds to the already revealed truth of 
God. His contribution to truth may not always 
be given in a constructive spirit. His motive 
may be to weaken rather than to strengthen and 
defend, and yet the very spark he tries to smother 
may be fanned into a blazing light for God, by 
the very attitude of his attack. 

Thus the explanation of the Psalmist's expres- 
sion, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee." 
So we might say that the harder such men work 
to destroy truth the harder they work to build it 
up and make it plain, "They can do nothing 
against the truth but for the truth." The reverent 
scholar has never tried to do anything against 
the truth. He has sought diligently to under- 
stand, to explain, and to corroborate the truth. 
He has proceeded in a fearless manner, search- 
ing every unsearched nook and corner related 



60 The Closing Century's Heritage 

to his task, ready to grasp anything and every- 
thing hitherto unknown. The real explorer 
and lover of truth proceeds with no predeter- 
mined ideas and results. He goes forward with 
his every available method and instrument, using 
them to the best of his ability, committing the 
products of his efforts to the Author of all truth. 
He is unconscious of both the desire and the pos- 
sibility of interfering with God's truth, and there- 
fore he leaves nothing unturned that will supple- 
ment his endeavors. This is the type of philos- 
opher, scientist, and higher critic, that has done 
noble service for both God and humanity. This 
is the type of scholar that has done most during 
the past half century toward making the Bible 
the living Word of God. There have been times 
when we feared and trembled lest they would 
deprive us of something that would take from us 
our old-time faith in God. There have been 
times when not only we, but the critics them- 
selves, have been discomfited by the seemingly 
antagonistic results of their labors, but out of the 
results which caused these temporary depres- 
sions, have come the most nourishing food for 
our faith in God's Word. After the results have 
passed through the refiner's fire, and been washed 
with the fuller's soap, most of the dross has disap- 



The Bible 61 

peared, and the sons of reverent scholarship have 
offered unto the Lord, an offering in righteous- 
ness, an offering pleasant unto the Lord as in the 
days of old and as in former years. 

Many, perhaps, think that they have been un- 
necessarily disturbed by our modern testing proc- 
ess. I wonder if they really have? Many, of 
course, never doubted the Bible being God's 
word, and never questioned many questions that 
have been raised and discussed, even during the 
period of their discussion, but would that prove 
that they were unnecessarily disturbed ? Is there 
a single believer in God's word credulous or in- 
credulous, whose faith in the Bible is not stronger 
because of the attacks and testing it has passed 
through ? Some may have discarded their super- 
stitious and childish ways of reading and under- 
standing it, but is it not God's book to all, in 
deed, and in truth, as never before? It has 
proven its origin and authority anew. It has not 
only conquered human ignorance, as it did in the 
early days when ignorance and enmity would 
have obliterated it if they could, but it has in 
these latter days withstood and triumphed over 
human wisdom, saying anew by its dauntless 
steadfastness, "/ am not of man , but of God for 
man." 



62 The Closing Century's Heritage 

And so, as it has been so excellently expressed, 
" Whatever the advances of modern science, 
there will still be the poison of sin which no 
earthly antidote can neutralize: there will still be 
the sorrow of bereavement to be solaced only by 
the vision of the angel at the door of the sepul- 
chre: there will still be the sense of loneliness 
stealing over the heart even amid the bustle of 
the world, to be dispelled only by the conscious- 
ness of the Saviour's presence: there will still be 
the spirit shudder at the thought of death, which 
only faith in Christ can change into the desire to 
depart and to be with Him, which is far better." 

For these things science has no remedy and 
philosophy no solace, and strong in its adapta- 
tions to these irrepressible necessities of the hu- 
man heart, the Gospel of Christ will outlive all 
philosophical attack, and survive every form of 
scientific belief. 

" Should science increase its present knowl- 
edge tenfold, there is nothing it can discover 
which will enable it to close up that region in 
man where the spirit communes in prayer and 
praise with its Father, where the longing for 
rest is content in the peace of forgiveness, where 
the desire of being perfect in unselfishness is sat- 
isfied by union with the activity of the unselfish 



The Bible 63 

God, where sorrow feels its burden lightened by 
divine sympathy, where strength is given to 
overcome evil, where as decay and death grow 
upon the outward frame the inner spirit begins 
to put forth its wings and to realize more nearly 
the eternal summer of His presence in whom 
there is fullness of life in fullness of love." 

God's word is the only mirror into which man 
can look and satisfactorily understand the whys 
and the wherefores, the whence and the whith- 
ers, connected with his life : it is the only source 
of explanation for our desires and ambitions, the 
only adequate answer for our needs and hopes. 
This is so because God is the Creator of the one 
and the Author of the other. He who had power 
to create man with desires, has power also to an- 
swer them, and this He has done in His word 
and in His works. 

" Only he who knows man could have made 
man a book. Only he that made all hearts could 
produce a book that could go to the wants of all 
hearts." 

Where other books fail the Bible fits; when 
other books become monotonous and meaning- 
less the Bible remains fresh and inspiriting: no 
other system has ever approached its sublimity, 
no other book has ever sounded the depths of 



64 The Closing Century's Heritage 

humanity, or revealed the glories and possibilities 
of eternity. All other systems, and all other 
books, which have tried to take its place and ful- 
fill its purpose have either waned completely or 
are waning, while the Bible with age increases in 
power, fascinating and controlling all over whom 
it has an opportunity to exert its life-giving in- 
fluence. 

But all this searching and sifting and scrutiniz- 
ing, has not only served to renew our confidence 
in Biblical truth, but it has served to renew our 
understanding of Biblical truth. We have learned 
anew the purpose of the scriptures, which hith- 
erto we have somewhat misunderstood. We no 
longer think of the Bible as the final text-book on 
geography, geology and astronomy. As Cardi- 
nal Baronius has said, " The purpose of the Holy 
Scriptures is to teach us how to go to heaven, 
and not how the heavens go." In other words, 
God gave us His truth as revealed in His word to 
teach us the principles of religion, and not to 
teach us the particulars of natural science. It 
was not God's intention in revealing to us His 
word, to give us instruction in the arts and 
sciences. Our relations to our Creator, our duties 
toward Him and toward each other, these are the 
things concerning which God's word gives no 



The Bible 65 

uncertain sound. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and 
with all thy mind, and thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself" — how to fulfill these two com- 
mandments, was and is, the real purpose of 
God's written revelation. 

Of course almost every conceivable branch of 
knowledge is used in connection with this pur- 
pose, but they are all used indirectly as connected 
with the special department to which they be- 
long, and therefore in justice to God and His 
written revelation these indirect references should 
not be used as final or positive proofs, simply be- 
cause they happen to appear on the pages of sa- 
cred truth. To Moses and John, Paul and Peter, 
God has revealed the final word and truth, which 
regulate the duties of man toward God and man 
toward man, but He has left to Galileo and to 
Newton, to Watt and to Edison, the discovery of 
the laws which preside over the universe. "It 
was never Christ's intention to reveal scientific 
truth in His word: but He has left ample verge 
and scope for it. The indentations of the two 
revolving wheels will be found to fit wherever 
they really come into contact; and the only thing 
broken will be the premature human harmoniz- 
ing." 



66 The Closing Century's Heritage 

But a heritage greater even than our renewed 
confidence in God's word, and our renewed un- 
derstanding of the purpose of God's word, is the 
heritage of a revived interest in the study and 
doctrines of God's word. Perhaps, " It must be 
admitted that the Bible is not so much read as it 
once was." If you mean by the Bible a bound 
separate volume in itself, then perhaps I would 
agree with the above admission in part, and say 
that in proportion to the increase of the Biblical 
world's population, it must be admitted that the 
Bible is not so much read as it once was. But is 
not the study of the Bible as a separate volume 
too narrow an understanding of Bible study ? 
Must we limit Bible study and Bible reading to 
the hours spent in reading and studying the Bible 
itself ? To do this, would be to do a cruel injus- 
tice to a great host of students and lovers of 
God's word. Not so many people may be able 
to quote verbatim, the letter as recorded, as once 
was, but to those who would make verbatim, 
parrot-like recitation, the test of the value of 
scripture to others and the test of appreciation of 
scripture by others, I would say remember two 
quotations, one from Paul, the other from Shakes- 
peare. "The letter killeth but the spirit giveth 
life." "The devil can cite scripture for his pur- 



The Bible 67 

pose." But mark you* I do not mean to say that 
the Bible as a volume in itself is not the prefer- 
able book or help by which to understand its 
own contents. I do think the tendency of the 
present time is to make too free and indiscrimi- 
nate use of outside helps. 

Neither do I mean to say that the memorizing 
of scripture is not profitable or proper. But I do 
mean to say that a man may be a Bible student 
and a Bible practicer, and not be a great student 
of the Bible, as a volume in itself, and without 
being able to quote either verbatim or verbosely 
scripture passages. 

The Lord's prayer would mean a great deal 
more, to a great many of us, if we knew its 
spirit better, and its letter less. It is a revived 
interest in the study of the spirit of truth that 
characterizes the present. The Bible is being 
recognized more as a book of life than as a book 
of law. The "Thou shalt nots" and the "Thus 
saith the Lord" are being hearkened to and 
obeyed out of love rather than out of fear. The 
Bible, as never before, is not only acknowledged 
to contain the principles of eternal life, but the 
principles which ought to govern every sane per- 
son in this life. Its truths are being sought not 
only to die by, but to live by. Pilate's question 



68 The Closing Century's Heritage 

"What is truth ?" would not dumfound or puz- 
zle any company of enlightened men very much 
or very long to-day. "I am the way, the truth 
and the life," is a satisfactory answer to any 
thinking and believing soul. Therefore because 
of the Bible's acknowledged wisdom and prac- 
tical relationship to life here, as well as to the life 
beyond, the world is seeking to know its con- 
tents as never before. As an illustration con- 
firmatory of this truth, let me quote here a para- 
graph which appeared in the Congregation alist 
of June 1 6th, 1898. 

"World's conferences to promote religious 
and philanthropic work for young people are 
coming to be common affairs. This week the 
Young Women's Christian Association is hold- 
ing in London its first meeting of this sort. The 
United States sends about eighty delegates, and 
India, South Africa and Australia are represented, 
besides the countries of Europe. The world's 
student conference at Northfield, Mass., is to be- 
gin July 1st and continue ten days. It is ex- 
pected that fifty delegates from the United States 
will attend the World's Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association Conference at Basle, Switzer- 
land, which is to be in session from July 6th to 
10th. From July nth to 1 6th the World's Sun- 



The Bible 69 

day-school convention will hold meetings in 
London. At all these assemblies the addresses 
will be in the English language except that at 
Basle, papers are to be read in French and Ger- 
man also. The Bible will be a prominent topic 
in all these gatherings. Then in this country 
Christian Endeavorers will gather in large num- 
bers, at Nashville next month, and Baptist young 
people will assemble at Buffalo. Chautauquas 
are as numerous and attractive as ever. Jews of 
Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Roman Catholics, 
on Lake Champlain, have put the Chautauqua 
idea into operation. We speak of the summer 
as a season of rest, but the next three months 
will witness as great religious activity along 
many lines as any months in the year." 

Now the Bible will not only be a "prominent 
topic in all these gatherings," but the Bible is the 
basis of all these gatherings, and the result of all 
these gatherings will be a fuller knowledge of 
the spirit of the kingdom. Of course the con- 
vention spirit is running very high in these days 
— national, international, inter-denominational, 
and local — and yet there is no doubt, but that all 
the evangelical gatherings and conventions serve 
to disseminate the spirit of truth, the spirit of 
God's word. 



70 The Closing Century's Heritage 

As to a revived interest in the study of the 
doctrines of God's word, all familiar with pres- 
ent religious thought and publications will readily 
admit. The old doctrines to many, have been 
revivified and revealed anew. "Once in grace 
always in grace " no longer serves to quiet and 
comfort the man with no works and very little 
faith. Any doctrine which is part of a church's 
creed, which does not in the practical life of its 
members corroborate the scripture, "Faith with- 
out works is dead," is a misunderstood and mis- 
applied doctrine. But the chief revival in doc- 
trinal interest has been along the line of neglected 
doctrines. It would not be strictly true perhaps 
to designate them as unknown doctrines, but it 
would be strictly true to designate them as un- 
appreciated doctrines. Take for instance the 
doctrine of the second coming of Christ — a doc- 
trine very greatly abused and misused by many 
who believe in the pre-millennial theory, and yet 
a doctrine which if we will search our Bibles to 
find the truth concerning, the unprejudiced I 
think will decide to be classed with the increas- 
ing host of those who believe that Christ may 
come at any moment. Not necessarily a pre- 
millennialist, although some ardent advocate of 
the doctrine may try to persuade you that to be- 



The Bible 71 

lieve thus, you cannot but be a pre-millennialist. 
Every doctrine has its cranks and this one is by 
no means an exception. But the normal repre- 
sentative of this doctrine and the one who un- 
derstands the Biblical revelation, will not tell you 
the exact time of Christ's coming, neither will 
he tell you that belief in this doctrine is the high- 
est incentive to a holy life, but he will tell you 
that "Christ is liable to come at any moment, 
and that if that belief becomes a part of your 
life because you believe the Bible teaches it, then 
it will be an inspiration to you to 'watch and 
be ready."' I wish we could separate from this 
doctrine of the second coming of Christ, these 
pre and post extremists who interpret this doc- 
trine to fit their theological theories; the former 
of whom say Christ must come before certain 
things can be completed; the latter of whom say 
He cannot come until certain things are com- 
pleted. " But of that day and hour knoweth no 
one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the 
Son but the Father only." Matt. xxiv. 36, r. v. 
Another doctrine, if such it might be called, 
that the Christian world is beginning to under- 
stand and appreciate, is the omnipresence of 
Christ — " Lo I am with you alway even unto the 
end of the world. " "Say not in thine heart who 



72 The Closing Century's Heritage 

shall ascend into heaven (that is to bring Christ 
down from above) or who shall descend into the 
deep (that is to bring up Christ again from the 
dead)." " Closer is He than breathing and nearer 
than hands and feet." That line in one of our 
hymns " He walks beside me all the way" con- 
tains not only a wonderful but a beautiful truth. 
It is the explanation of the third line of the same 
verse " And keeps me faithful day by day." The 
Christ of glory, at the same time the Christ of 
earthly companionship : the Christ of the heavenly 
way, the Christ of the sorrowful way ; the Christ 
with God, the Christ with man. 

But the last and particular doctrine which I 
want to call attention to, is the doctrine of the 
Holy Spirit. Hitherto we have not only given 
the Holy Spirit third place in the Trinity, but we 
have given Him third place in our lives, and al- 
most no place in theology apart from His doc- 
trinal connection with the Godhead. We have 
used to express Him the pronoun of the third 
person, neuter gender. We have recognized Him 
more as an attribute and influence than as a per- 
son and a power. This third person of the God- 
head has been so misunderstood, so mystified, 
and so subordinated that God has not been able 
to do any mighty works in our midst. Not that 



The Bible 



73 



the Holy Spirit has not been at work: not that 
the Holy Spirit has not helped each one of us do 
the little we have done for God; not that the 
Holy Spirit has been utterly ignored — no, not so 
bad as that, but His work has been limited; His 
work has been hindered; our work in proportion 
to our efforts has been fruitless and all or largely 
because we have not understood the Spirit's 
mission. We have been treating the third per- 
son of the Trinity since Pentecost in about the 
same manner that the world has been treating 
Niagara's power. We have been spectators 
rather than appropr tutors. All these centuries 
has that mighty cataract thundered, and foamed, 
and rushed madly and aimlessly on in its course, 
until as it were just the other day, its power has 
been harnessed, its force directed and now the 
result toward progress, What may it not be? 
All these years it has been calling to its many ad- 
mirers and spectators, "Use me, use me, use 
me! "and we have been deaf to its entreaties. 
In like manner also we might say the Holy Spirit 
has been unrecognized. But we are rejoiced 
that the evening time of light is beginning to 
break. The Holy Spirit's rays are focusing 
upon our hearts and upon God's word with such 
enlightening and life-giving effect, that now we 



74 The Closing Century's Heritage 

are beginning to see His real relationship to this 
dispensation in which we live — to Bible truth and 
Christian life. The world is being stirred anew 
for God, by the new and scriptural understand- 
ing of this doctrine. He is taking of the things 
of Christ and revealing them unto us. He is 
leading us into all truth. 



IV 

THE PULPIT 

" If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be 
full of light." — Matt. vi. 22. 

The hero preacher of the recently published and 
largely read book, "In His Steps," or "What 
Would Jesus Do ?" although an imaginary charac- 
ter as therein named and described, is neverthe- 
less much nearer a real character in more than one 
pulpit, than perhaps many think. The only 
regret I had when I finished the book was, that 
Henry Maxwell was not a real character. And 
yet I am convinced that the imaginary character 
therein described, in so far as it is correct, and 
applicable to the individual case is but the fore- 
runner of the reality, not far distant for many 
pulpits. "What Would Jesus Do?" in Henry 
Maxwell's case might not be the particular thing 
Jesus would do in your place or mine. The old 
phrase, "Circumstances alter cases," is perhaps 
truer of the minister of the gospel, and in his 
work than in the case of any other individual or 
of any other vocation in life. 

75 



76 The Closing Century's Heritage 

The fact that our environments differ, neither 
prevents nor excuses us from individually asking 
"What Would Jesus Do?" And the fact that 
our methods and messages differ, neither denies 
nor disproves Christ's attitude and actions in our 
individual efforts. Variety of means need not 
exclude singleness of purpose. Our commission 
is such that our methods and messages must 
necessarily differ. We must be "Wise as 
serpents and harmless as doves " if we would 
accomplish the most possible for God. We must 
be <c made all things to all men, that we might by 
all means save some." Good common sense, 
born of conviction, and executed with courage, 
is a qualification of the Christian ministry, indis- 
pensable to the highest possible success. Such 
common sense will exercise the principles of 
Jesus and Paul above referred to as they ought to 
be exercised, not acting with harmful duplicity 
at any time, either toward self or others. But 
the fact that our environments differ and that 
therefore our messages and methods must differ 
does not prevent any one of us who will from 
walking "In His Steps," or from asking the 
question at all times and under all circumstances 
"What Would Jesus Do?" 

Jesus' methods included the washing of the 



The Pulpit 77 

disciples' feet, the broiling of fish for the fisher- 
men's breakfast, the visiting of individuals and 
homes in times of affliction. His messages ranged 
all the way from the "Sermon on the Mount" 
to the multitude, to a conversation with two men, 
which necessitated a walk with them all the way 
from Jerusalem to Emmaus. And so to do what 
Jesus would do if He were in our places, would 
be to do what Jesus did nearly nineteen hundred 
years ago, namely, adapt himself to the varying 
needs of the various individuals, classes and com- 
munities with which He came in contact, never 
failing to say or do something in the way it would 
do the most good, toward helping God-ward 
those in His presence. No one of us may be 
privileged to enjoy the variety of opportunity af- 
forded our Master, or be able to adapt ourselves 
to such a variety were it given us, but not being 
able to do so much, or not being able to do the 
exact same things which Jesus would do, in the 
exact same way, is neither necessarily our fault 
nor our misfortune. Jesus was the God-Man, we 
are but man. " It is required according to what 
a man hath and not according to what he hath 
not ; " and therefore although our efforts may not 
be Christlike in degree, yet they may be Christ- 
like in principle ; and thus be what Jesus would 



78 The Closing Century's Heritage 

do if He were human and human only. Human 
nature, because it is human nature, is necessarily 
limited. " In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the 
Godhead bodily," but in us that fullness cannot 
dwell, because even the fullness of humanity is 
but the reflection of the influence of that perfect 
fullness of God in Jesus Christ. Our efforts are 
limited because we are limited. They are ac- 
cepted of God as what Jesus would do, because 
they are wrought in and through Christ's power 
and grace. Thus because we are only human 
and limited need not discourage us, for if God 
had required divinity rather than humanity to ful- 
fill His purposes and plans as committed to us, He 
doubtless could and would have made more than 
humanity possible to us. Our anxiety therefore 
should be, not about our human limitations, but 
about our human inclinations and aspirations. If 
our hearts incline aright and if our motives and 
hopes are inspired, by holy aspirations, God will 
not only use us, but will be glorified through us. 
And this understanding of God's plan and pur- 
pose for and in us, we recognize as never before. 
Individual fitness to preach the "unsearchable 
riches of Christ," is being considered with a sin- 
cerity unparalleled in the history of the Christian 
ministry since Apostolic days. Children born 



The Pulpit 79 

naturally good or constitutionally delicate, used 
to be considered the legitimate aspirants in the 
family for the ministry. The boy of decided in- 
dividuality was despaired of as a possibility for 
the holy office ; the boy physically large and 
strong was looked upon as fitted for something 
heavier and more difficult of performance. 

I do not mean to say that God does not call 
into His service, those who are born naturally 
good, or those who are born physically weak. 
Natural goodness, plus supernatural grace, must 
mean a powerful life in God's service, and 
physical weakness plus spiritual strength may 
mean a life bordering on omnipotence, if God 
wills. Neither do I mean to say that the fitness 
physically or spiritually has been decided accord- 
ing to the old parental conceptions. God surely 
has called into His service many whom the father 
and mother considered fit. He has called into 
His service many whom the father and mother 
never dreamed of as being fit. He has restrained 
from entering and performing His service, many 
whom parents and friends would have been re- 
joiced to see in the profession. In other words 
God has done the selecting and rejecting, not- 
withstanding nature's recognized qualifications 
according to human wisdom, and He will con- 



80 The Closing Century's Heritage 

tinue to do the same in the future. Nevertheless 
there is from the human side, a distinction be- 
tween the past and the present, in regard to fit- 
ness, which is very noticeable and significant. 
Natural goodness, and physical weakness are 
looked upon as slight indications of fitness even 
by parents nowadays. In fact physical weakness 
is considered a very strong indication in favor of 
a life-work in some other direction. The only 
satisfactory mark of fitness to either wise parents, 
or honest sons, is a direct call from God. This 
call may come so that we may phrase it in the 
language "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel," 
or it may come through such unmistakable cir- 
cumstances in our lives that we are compelled to 
say "It is of the Lord, and of the Lord only be- 
cause He wants to fit me for His service." Some- 
times God calls as loudly and as plainly in this 
latter way as He does in the former way. God 
has no one definite formula by which He makes 
known His decrees. He may deprive a man of 
a desire to do anything else but preach the gos- 
pel ; He may deprive a man of an opportunity to 
do anything else but preach the gospel ; He may 
obstruct, or construct our plans so that no other 
possible course is left open to us, or He may call 
us as plainly as He called Paul. But however He 



The Pulpit 81 

calls, whether by outward circumstances or audi- 
ble voice, He will call us so plainly that we 
will know His call if only we are willing to listen 
and obey. Only he who recognizes God's hand 
or voice in this way, has any right to put his hand 
to the plow. 

The thoroughly conscientious man of the fu- 
ture is going to be fully persuaded in his own 
mind that God calls him, before he will venture 
to preach the gospel. 

The ministry as a profession and as a means of 
livelihood no longer plays an important part in 
the way of decision for the sacred calling. Pro- 
fessional dignity, and the necessaries of life are 
adjuncts of the ministry, but God surely never 
intended them as reasons for any man to choose 
the ministry as his life-work. And yet by the 
fruits of some men, we are almost compelled to 
believe that respectability and remuneration were 
the prominent attractions connected with their 
choice and decision. Herein I believe is where 
the future is going to radically differ from the 
past. No worldly advantage is going to be 
strong enough to tempt the thoughtful man to 
handle the word of God deceitfully. Back of 
all the social, intellectual, and financial tempta- 
tions, must be heard God's approving voice — 



82 The Closing Century's Heritage 

God's call to the preaching of the gospel as an 
apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a pastor, or a 
teacher. 

In the sixth of a recent series of articles * in the 
Congregation alisty by Dr. Jefferson of the Broad- 
way Tabernacle, under the caption " What is the 
matter " these suggestive and true sentences ap- 
peared: "No, I have no objection to telling you 
what I conceive to be the radical defect in much 
of the preaching of our time. It is a lack of 
spiritual passion. The tone of authority is faint. 
Too much of the preaching is that of the scribes. 
Clergymen are numerous, but prophets are few. 
It is this 'something religious' which one misses 
in too many of our American churches and in too 
much of our modern preaching. Bright things, 
true things, helpful things are said in abundance, 
but the spiritual passion is lacking. The service 
smacks of time and not of eternity. The atmos- 
phere of the sermon is not that of Mount Sinai or 
Mount Calvary, but that of the professor's room 
or the sanctum of the editor. The intellect is 
instructed, the emotions are touched, but the 
conscience is not stirred nor is the will compelled 
to appear before the judgment throne and render 
its decision. The old tone of the ' Thus saith the 

1 Since published in book form. 



The Pulpit 83 

Lord ' of the Hebrew prophets is lacking. Men 
are everywhere hungering and waiting for it, but 
in many churches they have thus far waited for 
it in vain." 

Now this lack of " spiritual passion " and this 
" something religious " which one misses in too 
many of our American churches, is lacking and 
missing largely because of the indistinctness of 
our mission as ministers of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. I would not say that most ministers of 
the gospel have not been called; I would not say 
that they are not where they ought to be, so far 
as their life calling and work is concerned, but I 
do believe that only a small percentage have 
grasped the distinctness of their mission, and 
definiteness of their personal responsibility, as 
heralds of the gospel of Christ. We have been 
too long and too much accustomed to look upon 
the ministry as one of the professions and noth- 
ing more. A minister of the gospel is more than 
a mere member of a mere profession. " The po- 
sition of a minister is unique. His mission is 
momentous. His work, while fitting into the 
labors of all other servants of the Lord, is differ- 
ent from theirs. The moment he forsakes the 
task appointed him and attempts to share the 
work and honors of other men, swift retribution 



84 The Closing Century's Heritage 

follows in his track. Woe to the preacher who 
in these modern days shirks the wrestling and 
agonies of the prophet, and attempts to perform 
the duties assigned to others! " Let us therefore 
hearken unto the Psalmist's admonition "Be still 
and know that I am God." Let us hear anew 
what God the Lord has to say unto us, concern- 
ing our office as Christian ministers. May we so 
wait before God, and listen, that if hitherto we 
have been uncertain of either our call or our mes- 
sage, God may speak to us anew, reassuring us 
of our commission, and rekindling our faith in 
the "story of the Cross." Conviction that God 
has called us, and that the gospel is the power of 
God unto salvation unto every one that believeth, 
are furnishings without which the minister will 
be a failure in his work. 

Another requirement, that these modern times 
is making plainer to the ministry is their own 
personal heart culture. In the past there has 
been a tendency to rest satisfied with ourselves 
and to devote all of our efforts toward the better- 
ing of others. This disproportionate, unjust and 
dangerous method, is changing. We are be- 
ginning to realize in our church life and work, 
the old scientific principle, "That water cannot 
rise above its level." If the spirituality of the 



The Pulpit 85 

pulpit is low, the spirituality of the pew will 
very likely be low also. " Like priest, like peo- 
ple " may be either sadly or inspiringly true. If 
a preacher is a leader of his people, as he is sup- 
posed to be by virtue of his office, then it is we 
can readily understand how the temperature of 
the pulpit affects the temperature of the pew. 
Now whether it is the realization of the ministry 
of its influence over the people, or whether it is 
the realization on the part of the ministry of its 
own spiritual barrenness that has forced this 
personal introspection on the part of so many in 
the ministry, I am not prepared to say. The 
latter I am inclined to think. Be this as it may, 
the fact remains that the ministry is examining 
their own hearts to-day as never before. Men 
are crying "Create in me a clean heart O God, 
and renew a right spirit within me," with an 
earnestness unparalleled since the early days of 
Christianity. As an illustration of this hungering 
and thirsting after righteousness on the part of 
the ministry, and God's willingness to fill or 
saturate, which is the promise to all who hunger 
and thirst, let me quote here in full one of the 
papers read before a ministerial association a 
few months ago, on a Symposium entitled "The 
Minister's Own Heart Culture," by one of our 



86 The Closing Century's Heritage 

hoary-headed, highly-educated and much-re- 
spected ministers. 

" I am asked to speak on the necessity of heart 
culture. Had I been asked a month ago, I might 
have spoken more in harmony with generally ac- 
cepted views on this subject than now. Some 
three weeks ago while reading the words of 
Jesus for my own spiritual profit, and what 
might be called heart culture, I found myself 
consciously for the first time in the school of 
Christ. I seemed to hear Christ speak to me; 
down to the very depths of my heart His words 
went. Never was 1 so conscious of my poverty 
of soul, of my need of that furnishing which He 
alone can give. And in my sense of utter need 
I said to myself now I shall be furnished, but 
with this thought there came as by a flash of 
light the great truth that no words of Christ, no 
teaching of this school, can in any way prepare 
me to do effective work. No mere culture in the 
ordinary sense of that word; no mere spiritual 
training. Though I might hold in my memory 
all the words of Jesus, and though I might be 
able to speak with great human eloquence, all 
this would be as sounding brass and a tinkling 
cymbal. What I really needed was Christ in me. 
All possible culture, all possible training, the 



The Pulpit 87 

teaching of His school was of absolutely no 
value unless I had Him. ' Apart from Me ye can 
do nothing/ The necessity is seen just here. 
His presence must be cultivated. Standing then 
on this great truth; seeing what spiritual culture 
really is, nothing is more plain, more self-evident 
or axiomatic than this necessity. Just here I be- 
lieve the barrenness of my ministry is seen; I have 
not neglected heart culture in the usual accepta- 
tion of that word, but I have largely neglected 
the culture of the presence of Christ. What the 
church needs, what God's prophets need, is not 
so much more truth, more prayer, more self- 
denial, more activity; the pressing urgent need, 
the necessity of these times and of all times, is 
that Christ in the person of the Holy Ghost 
should come to His church. Then 'shall the 
lame man leap as a hart, then shall the dumb 
speak, then shall the plants of the Lord bud and 
bear fruit/ Intellectual culture will no doubt 
make man self-reliant. It will fit him to be a 
good lawyer, a successful physician, a competent 
engineer, but no culture of mind or heart can 
make a man successful in winning souls. The 
great lesson for us to learn is our weakness, and 
Christ's power. It is only when we are conscious 
of our own helplessness and discover by the 



88 The Closing Century's Heritage 

revelation of the spirit that all power is given 
unto Christ, both in heaven and on earth, that we 
will so cultivate His presence, that we shall go 
forth in His strength." 

Three other ministers on this same occasion 
spoke of similar experiences. I mention these 
things simply to show that the ministry is in 
search of the deep things of God. Ability to ex- 
egete a difficult passage, analyze a parable or a 
miracle, or vividly describe a scene in the Mas- 
ter's life— all philosophical and rhetorical ability 
—fail to satisfy a heart conscious of some spirit- 
ual discrepancy which he knows he ought to 
have, or might have if he would. A man need 
know very little about the deep things of God in 
order to preach what the world calls a scholarly 
sermon, but a man must know something about 
the deep things of God, before he can preach the 
gospel that makes men what they ought to be 
for eternity. Mere theorizing is not enough. It 
must be a case of, " We believe therefore we 
speak." If we would instill the deep things of 
God into our people, they must first be instilled 
into ourselves. This is what the ministry real- 
izes; this is one of the reasons why the ministry 
is seeking for the fuller life of God in Jesus 
Christ. 



The Pulpit 89 

I have said little about the pulpit's head cul- 
ture, perhaps because it is an implied necessity, 
but never before was education such an absolute 
necessity for the pulpit as it is to-day. Heart 
culture without head culture, will make just as 
great a failure, as will head culture without heart 
culture. Not necessarily because the ministry of 
the present and future must be more argumenta- 
tive than the ministry of the past; not necessarily 
because we have more questioners and doubters 
in our congregations, or because scientific theo- 
ries and diplomatic debate must take the place of 
the preaching of the gospel, but because public 
sentiment demands an educated ministry. It was 
Richard Baxter, I think, who said he preached 
one sermon a year entirely over the heads of his 
people just to show them that if he wished he 
could do so every Sunday. Richard Baxter's 
object was a legitimate one, but one which the 
modern preacher must accomplish not only once 
a year, but once a week if he would win and 
retain the highest possible respect of the com- 
munity, and if he would do the most possible 
good for the Master. 

This may not necessitate the preaching of a 
single paragraph over the heads of our people: 
it may only mean the proper utilizing of common 



90 The Closing Century's Heritage 

truth — scientific, philosophic, historic — to illus- 
trate and corroborate the "Wonderful Story of 
Love." Lack of this combined ability — head and 
heart — I believe is the explanation of the late 
Henry Drummond's advice to young men. "I 
want to urge the claims of the Christian ministry 
on the strength and talent of our youth. I find a 
singular want of men in the Christian ministry 
and I think it would be at least worth while for 
some of you to look around, to look at the men 
who are not filling the churches, to look at the 
needs of the crowds who throng the streets and 
see if you could do better with your life than 
throw yourself into that work." 

It was not only said of Jesus, " Behold how 
He loved him! " but it was also said, "Whence 
hath this man this wisdom." The two are com- 
patible, and the minister of the gospel who 
ignores either for the sake of the other, need not 
be surprised if his is an unsuccessful ministry. 



THE PEW 

" Let your light so shine before men, that they may see 
your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven.' ' 
— Matt. v. 16. 

The pew after all from the human point of 
view, is really the regulator of all that has pre- 
ceded. It is the pew that mans the state. It is 
the pew that demands the church. It is the pew 
that practically reveals the Bible; and it is the 
pew from which the pulpit is supplied. If out 
of the heart proceed the issues of the individual 
life, out of the pew proceed the issues of the 
world's life. Therefore, it is well that we should 
consider our responsibility in view of these facts, 
profit by our past mistakes, remedy our present 
errors, and go on unto perfection. By the pew 
I do not mean necessarily only church-members, 
but church adherents, recognizers and supporters 
of the church: those to whom the truth of the 
church is a necessary part of their life, and there- 
fore to whom the support of the church becomes 
a personal responsibility. Before God, the recog- 
nizer of the church as right, and the supporter of 

91 



92 The Closing Century's Heritage 

the church as necessary, whether he is a church 
member or not, will be held responsible for the 
pew's destined duty. ' ' These things ye ought to 
have done and not to have left the others undone." 
"If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do 
them," but unhappy are ye if ye do not do them, 
but, happy or unhappy, responsible before God 
for the doing of them. There has been a ten- 
dency in the past — perhaps it has extended into 
the present, I am inclined to think it has — to im- 
agine that non-connection with the church by 
membership, excuses such people from the dis- 
charge of spiritual duties. In and before the 
world they may stand excused, but before God, 
our judgment will not be according to church 
membership, but according to knowledge. If 
concerning some it shall be said, "Depart from 
Me I never knew you," concerning others it shall 
be said, "Depart from Me for ye knew Me, but 
would not obey Me." Thus, in this chapter 
under the caption of the pew, I would include 
as responsible to God, and to the world, not only 
the professors of truth but the perceivers of 
truth, — the recognizers of God's way as the 
right way. This will include many who are not 
professors, but who to Him, who looketh not on 
the outward appearance but on the heart, will be 



The Pew 



93 



responsible when the secrets of all men shall be 
disclosed. "If I had not come and spoken to 
them they had not had sin, but now they have 
no excuse for their sin." The pew has been, 
and is being spoken to directly. God has not 
only spoken to it through the mouth of His 
servants, but He has spoken to it through His 
word. Of course there is a sense in which the 
professing Christian, the church member, is more 
responsible than the non-professing portion of 
the pew, but both are being spoken to, and this 
according to the above saying of Jesus is enough 
to place all in the ranks of the inexcusable. 

There are hosts of non-professing Christians, 
regular attendants of all the church services, 
who excuse their uncompleted Christian duty by 
quoting the inconsistencies and failures of those 
who profess better things : there are hosts of 
others, professors as well as non-professors, who 
blame their ignorance and half-hearted living 
upon the pulpit. 

Now the Closing Century's Heritage for the 
pew means the knowledge of a life as our ideal 
and example, higher, holier, and much more 
closely associated with us than either our pastor 
in the pulpit, or our neighbor in the pew. Both 
perhaps ought to be better than they are, but 



94 The Closing Century's Heritage 

either or both at their best, will ever be unsatis- 
factory as ideals, to him who knows anything of 
the Man of Galilee. Earth's ideals and examples 
may inspire and encourage sometimes, but to 
make our inspirations and encouragements de- 
pend upon them, would be to make the biggest 
mistake of our lives, — even if no other reason 
could be given than that of an imperfect ideal at 
best, "seen through a glass darkly." 

In Jesus we have an ideal and example, who 
in the very face of His enemies nearly nineteen 
hundred years ago defied the accusation of sin ; 
whose incarnate life has been searched, and sifted, 
and studied, by friends and enemies, even until 
the present, and in the end, as in the beginning, 
is still pronounced "The life void of offence 
toward God and man, the sinless life, the perfect 
life." He is not only our only Saviour, but He is 
our only ideal and example, incapable of being 
impeached by human judgment, or criticised by 
human knowledge. The longer we live, the 
more we know about the life of Christ, and the 
more we know about human life, the less likely 
are we to idealize the human individual. I ven- 
ture to challenge the sincere student of the life of 
Christ, to produce a single character in the range 
of your acquaintanceship, or friendship, whom 



The Pew 95 

for one moment in comparison with Christ, you 
would present to the world as a perfect ideal ; 
one with all his perfection as seen through your 
eyes, for whom you would not fear every hour 
of the day, lest he might bring reproach upon the 
life of Christ. If therefore this is our feeling con- 
cerning those in whom we have the most implicit 
confidence — those whom we believe to be as near 
Christlike as man can be — how foolish are we to 
expect of the babes in Christ, (for of such the 
church is most largely composed), any other 
kind of a life, but a life of imperfection as com- 
pared with the Christ-life. 

Instead of such imperfections being detrimental 
and discouraging, they ought to serve as incentives 
to urge us into closer union with Christ ; they 
ought to be practical revelations to us of what 
Jesus said, "Without Me ye can do nothing." 
Of course if the world was totally devoid of lives 
whose "works" and "fruits" did not reveal the 
influence and help of the divine life, the fault- 
finder and criticiser of the church might have 
some ground on which to base his insincere ar- 
gument. 

But such a state of affairs does not exist, even 
in the mind of the most chronic fault-finder. 
There is nobody but knows some life made bet- 



96 The Closing Century's Heritage 

ter by contact with the divine life, and there are 
only a very few who are honest with themselves 
and honest with their God, who do not know 
scores of lives transformed and kept by the power 
of God. 

To blame my own willful disobedience toward 
God upon the weakness or ignorance of poor un- 
fortunates who fail to lay hold of the Christian 
life as they ought and might, is a pretty unmanly, 
and cowardly way, of facing what we know to 
be our positive and inexcusable duty both toward 
God and self. 

"Too many hypocrites already in the church" 
and "He doesn't practice what he preaches/' are 
lame excuses for intelligent men and women to 
offer even to man, not to say anything, as to 
how they must appear to God. Sympathy with 
those who offer such excuses in this enlightened 
age of individual responsibility, will not relieve 
the troubled conscience as it has in the past. 
Jesus' answer to Peter "What is that to thee? 
Follow thou Me," when Peter began to use John's 
circumstances as a pretext for doing things dif- 
ferently, is an answer realized, if not admitted by 
the majority of those who adopt the principles of 
Peter's argument to-day. 

The pew's understanding of Christ's teaching 



The Pew 97 

concerning our individual duty and responsibil- 
ity, is too thorough and too plain to hide behind 
the faults and failures of any one but self. God 
may be lenient toward those who are ignorant 
of the Bible — even toward those who are not 
permitted to read and interpret it for themselves, 
which seems to be quite a heathenish thought 
for civilization to carry into the twentieth cen- 
tury — but God cannot be lenient and forgiving 
to intelligent hearers and readers of the Bible, 
who try to excuse themselves for their careless- 
ness and indifference with the flimsy excuse, 
' 'Others are not what they profess to be." The 
past has been inclined to accept this manner of 
excuse with sympathy, but to the present it is 
mere "baby talk." 

Only two straightforward excuses can be 
given for not being an open confessor of Christ 
— unbelief or disbelief. That is to say, I am un- 
able to believe or I am unwilling to believe. No 
other excuse, honest or honorable, can be given 
either God or man. Let us away then with this 
cheap carping and criticising: let us face the 
duty that confronts us honorably. Let us say to 
God and the world one of three things, " I can't 
believe," "I won't believe," or "1 will believe." 
But never again say, "I would be a Christian 



98 The Closing Century's Heritage 

if there were not so many hypocrites in the 
church." Individual responsibility is too plainly 
understood to be conscientiously disputed with 
any argument, much less the argument of faults 
and failures in others. Not only he who runs 
may read, but the wayfaring man, though a fool, 
need not err therein. These old Scripture say- 
ings which have always been true, seem to be 
truer and more reasonably conceivable as true, 
in the present, than ever before. No longer is 
the professional man considered the only edu- 
cated man in the community. He may still be 
the professional specialist, but for what the 
world used to consider an educated man — a man 
well posted in the arts and sciences, theology in- 
cluded — we are no longer absolutely dependent 
upon the professorial chair or the ministerial 
dogmatist. Ignorance nowadays is a matter of 
choice, rather than an unavoidable calamity. 
There isn't a department of knowledge from 
scientific agriculture to a scientific study of the 
Bible, but is open and attainable for any individ- 
ual who chooses their acquirement. Therefore 
there stands upon the threshhold of the twen- 
tieth century as it were, our paternal guardian, 
handing to each intelligent son and daughter his 
or her "majority papers," saying as he passes 



The Pew 99 

them, "No longer can you hold me responsible 
for your present or future welfare. Every man 
shall bear his own burden, and if any man lack 
wisdom let him ask of God." 

Cooperation with the pulpit, or the relation- 
ship of the layman to the minister in preaching 
the gospel, is the second specific and positive 
revelation that the closing century reveals to the 
pew. Simply repeating with the minister, "Thy 
kingdom come. Thy will be done," or repeating 
responsively a psalm at the regular Sunday morn- 
ing service, or any other church service partici- 
pation, is not necessarily cooperation as it ought 
to be at all, and even if it is, is but such a little 
bit, that it is scarcely worthy of the name. And 
yet, sad as it may sound, this is all, or more than 
all the cooperation that nine-tenths of the pew 
give the pulpit. One of the most discouraging 
features of our present church life and work, is 
the few competent workers to be found — I might 
leave out the word competent altogether. Think 
of churches with a membership of 500 and more, 
finding it difficult to secure a Sunday-school 
superintendent for the infant department, or a 
superintendent for a Junior Christian Endeavor 
Society. Think of the unformed Sunday-school 
classes because of no teachers. Think of the 



loo The Closing Century's Heritage 

broken up and scattered Sunday-school classes 
because of disinterested and disinteresting teach- 
ers. Think of the young men who have been 
lost to the church, lost to their homes, and lost 
to their God, simply because there was no one 
to gather them into the Sunday-school, and teach 
them concerning sin and salvation. Think of 
the empty pews to which preachers preach on 
Sundays, and talk on Wednesdays, simply be- 
cause there is no one, or but a very few to help 
fill them up. Why this poverty of instruction 
and cooperation? Why? A false understand- 
ing of the relationship of the pew to the pulpit. 
A recent writer in one sentence exposes the mis- 
take and reveals the remedy. "A preacher of 
extraordinary gifts may draw a crowd into a 
building, but little is gained unless laymen are 
present to draw the crowd into the kingdom of 
God." Hitherto we have been accustomed to 
think of the preacher, as the most important per- 
sonage toward helping the unsaved into the 
kingdom. As an individual, he may be one of 
the most important. But the pulpit in itself, as 
set over against the importance of the pew in 
soul-winning — in so far as either of themselves 
has power to win a soul — fades into insignifi- 
cance. As already said in the opening sentence 



The Pew 101 

of this chapter "It is the pew that practically 
reveals the Bible." The world expects the man 
who stands behind the pulpit to be a good man: 
they expect to hear him say good things: they 
expect him to invite them to church : they ex- 
pect almost everything of him that he ventures 
to do for their good, taking it as a matter of fact, 
because of his profession and salary. His single- 
ness of purpose is oftentimes questioned by the 
man to whom he speaks because of the position 
he occupies. He fails to receive many times the 
unselfish credit he deserves, simply because of 
the false relationship in which the pew stands to 
him. Preaching the gospel has been so profes- 
sionalized, and so pulpitized, that the "good 
news " has neither had free scope nor been glori- 
fied. Many of us would pray with very little 
heart, " Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done," 
if we believed the human part of its accomplish- 
ment rested entirely with the pulpit. Mark you, 
I would not be understood as belittling any- 
thing essential for the highest possible qualifica- 
tions of those especially set apart for the specific 
purpose of preaching the gospel — those whom 
we license, ordain, and approve, as especially 
qualified. But I do agree with that London 
preacher, who "counts all in • Holy Orders,' who 



102 The Closing Century's Heritage 

in any sphere, however humble, are doing the 
work of God in obedience to a divine call; and 
who counts all others as laboring in vain, who 
have no evidence that they are thus called." 

Professional titles, professional dress, and pro- 
fessional spots, in which to perform the expected 
duty is a narrowing of the preaching of the gos- 
pel, foreign to the intention of the divine revela- 
tion. When the pew realizes that in the persons 
of its elders, and deacons, and doctors, and law- 
yers, and business men — every one in the pew 
to whom God has given ability to preach a word, 
or utter a sentence of encouragement or warning, 
to a despondent or sinning soul — when I say the 
pew realizes that this is a part of the preaching 
of the gospel, and a part of its duty and privilege, 
and grasps the opportunity and performs it, 
then shall pulpit and pew pray with zeal and ex- 
pectation, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be 
done." Sunday preaching, and that alone by the 
minister, is a very slow way of hastening the 
millennium. When the pew lays hold of its 
privilege and opportunity, and when the world 
realizes that the pew is preaching as well as 
practicing, then will reality take the place of pro- 
fessionalism, and the worth of the ministry will 
be acknowledged by the world, and the need of 



The Pew 103 

the ministry will be realized by the world. 
When in short, instead of criticising what is lack- 
ing in the minister's sermon, it will cooperate by 
supplying the lacking part, or better still, cooper- 
ate by supplying the whole part, where there is 
no regular minister to preach, then will the pew 
not only be grasping a present opportunity open 
in many country districts and city missions, but 
it will be grasping its God-intended work. 

Only a few weeks ago it was my privilege 
along with my congregation to sit at the feet 
of a layman — a business man in our city — and 
listen to a gospel address, a sermon that would 
have done credit to any preacher of the gospel, 
and one which I feel quite sure meant more to 
my people on that occasion than anything their 
pastor could have said, no difference how theo- 
logically eloquent you can imagine him as being. 
It was a more real and practical experience of 
" A man among men " than mine could be, not- 
withstanding the fact that I pride myself on being 
in touch with the life and lives of my people. It 
was a man stripped of professional hindrances, 
a man stripped of everything but manhood, tell- 
ing the "old, old story" of Christ's redeeming 
Love. That evening's experience brought me 
nearer the people, and brought the people nearer 



104 The Closing Century's Heritage 

me. No pulpit can be too sacred for such a 
service, no service can be more sacred in the 
sight of God. Such services in our regular pul- 
pits occasionally, would illustrate the fruits of 
the ministry, and magnify the grace and power 
of the gospel. Now the encouragement of this 
practice is in the hands of the pew. Many a 
regular pastor, well disposed in this direction, is 
hindered by congregational tradition and senti- 
ments, and whether well disposed or not the 
matter rests with the pew. May the time come, 
and come speedily when the pew shall have 
more to do with the preaching of the gospel; 
when especially the unsupplied, financially em- 
barrassed churches and missions, and the dis- 
tant destitute churches and schoolhouses, shall 
have in our capable laymen, servants of the 
"Most High" to preach the gospel of Christ; 
when our Men's Bible classes (young and old) 
shall be taught by men of like temptations and 
like occupations with themselves; when fellow- 
professional man shall advise or admonish his 
fellows concerning eternity; when the business 
man shall make it a part of his business to urge 
his fellow-business man to live according to the 
principles of the author of the Golden Rule; 
when as the prophet expressed it, "They helped 



The Pew 105 

every one his neighbor; and every one said to 
his brother, be of good courage. So the carpen- 
ter encouraged the goldsmith, and' he that 
smootheth with the hammer him that smote 
with the anvil." When we see the pew in this 
relationship to the pulpit, preaching when and 
where it has an opportunity to corroborate or 
add to the efforts of the pulpit, then shall we see 
the proper cooperation that should exist between 
the pulpit and the pew — then shall we see the 
religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, recognized as a 
practical reality. 

Thus far in this chapter I have called attention 
to personal responsibility, and personal cooper- 
ation, emphasizing each as being necessarily 
realized in this progressive age as never before. 
It would be decidedly unjust to say that only 
consciousness of responsibility and conscious 
need of cooperation existed. These two things 
have already borne, and are daily bearing fruit in 
a deep personal consecration of life to God. 

And so the Closing Century's Heritage for the 
pew is not only the conviction of personal re- 
sponsibility, and the consciousness of the neces- 
sity of personal cooperation with the pulpit, but 
the desire for a deeper and fuller consecration of 
self. Jesus' expression that the doer of evil 



106 The Closing Century's Heritage 

hateth the light, and the doer of truth loveth the 
light, are truer of the present than any other time 
since Jesus uttered them. The doers of truth 
are not only coming to the light, but are seeking 
and praying for the fuller light, whilst the doers 
of evil not only hate the light, but are seemingly 
seeking a denser darkness. In other words, the 
path of the just is shining more and more unto 
the perfect day, whilst the path of the unjust and 
the hypocrite is a path of blacker darkness than 
ever before realized or trod. We have gotten to 
the place where the light of God is shining with 
such brilliancy upon His word and upon our own 
hearts, that most Christians are going to do one 
of two things, either they are going to claim the 
fullness of their birthright in Jesus Christ as re- 
vealed by the Holy Ghost, or else they are going 
to become disgusted with what they are as com- 
pared with what they know they ought to be, 
and lapse into a kind of life, concerning which it 
may be said, " The last state of that man is worse 
than the first." We have gotten to the place 
where we realize very decidedly the impossibil- 
ity of being able to serve two masters. God or 
Mammon must rule. " Either he will hate the 
one and love the other; or else he will hold to 
the one and despise the other." The Christianity 



The Pew 107 

of our century's evening time and close is either 
going to become hot or grow cold. Lukewarm 
Christian living we realize as not only being 
nauseating to God, but humiliating and depreciat- 
ing to ourselves. Therefore man's higher and 
nobler nature demands an acceptance and ac- 
knowledgment of things spiritual as they ought 
to be. Appearances, and the traditional church 
membership idea, are the least important factors 
toward the satisfying of the thoughtful, honest 
soul, to-day. "The root of the matter" is the 
only comforting assurance nowadays. Paul's 
admonition to the Corinthians, " Examine your- 
selves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your 
ownselves," is one that many have been wrest- 
ling with and positively deciding anew. There 
never was a time in the history of the Kingdom 
of God upon earth when there were so many 
thoroughly consecrated and Christlike people as 
at the present. The pessimistic refrain on the 
lips of many "The world is getting worse every 
day," is a slander upon the truth and the power 
of God. Hall Caine was not over-sanguine, when 
in an interview he said: " The voice of Christ 
was never so powerful as now, His teachings 
were never so eagerly and intelligently studied 
as now, nor was there ever a time when so 



108 The Closing Century's Heritage 

many gave up all to follow Him." Intelligent 
consecration of body, soul and substance to God 
was never so marked as it is now. The fact that 
we are not our own, and that we have been 
bought with a price appeals to our manhood and 
is receiving an honest and earnest consideration. 
The truth is marching on; the "time " is being 
quickened and the church of Christ individually, 
is falling into the line of march, "forgetting 
those things which are behind, and reaching forth 
unto those things which are before; pressing to- 
ward the mark for the prize of the high calling 
of God in Christ Jesus." 



By Rev. F. B. Meyer 



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